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Interurban Press was a small, private company American publishing company, specializing in books about Tram, other forms of rail Public transport and railroads in North America, from 1943MacDougall, Kent (May 19, 1983). "Books Ring Bell With Devotees: Publisher Specializes in History of Trolleys". Los Angeles Times, p. 1. until 1993.Ryll, Thomas (November 29, 1994). "Felida man tracks light rail" (profile of retired Interurban Press owner Mac Sebree). The Columbian, p. A3. It was based in the Los Angeles area, and specifically in Glendale, California after 1976. Although its primary focus was on books, it also published three magazines starting in the 1980s, along with and Wall calendar. At its peak, the company employed 10 people and generated about $2 million in business annually.
Under Mac Sebree's ownership, Interurban Press expanded its output, from typically two hardcover books per year to at least six books per year, eight to ten "in a good year", and also acquired two monthly , Pacific RailNews and Passenger Train Journal ( PTJ) (ISSN 0160-6913). Pacific News (renamed Pacific RailNews in late 1984; ISSN 8750-8486) was acquired from Chatham Publishing in 1983, and PTJ was acquired from PTJ Publishing in 1987.McKinney, Kevin. "On the Point". Passenger Train Journal, issue 229 (4th Quarter, 2006), p. 2. White River Productions. ISSN 0160-6913. While keeping its main focus on electric urban transit, the company widened its range to include books about and non-passenger rail subjects.
In 1981, Interurban acquired the sales rights to the railroad and Western American titles of Trans-Anglo Books, another Glendale-based Small press. During the 1980s the company also added railfan-oriented and Wall calendar to its product line, the former being sold under the brand name "Interurban Films". (Before VHS video-cassette players became commonly in use, Interurban Press had offered a small number of films in Regular-8 or Super 8 format.)
In 1983, sales through general bookstores accounted for about 25% of Interurban's business, and another 15% came from direct Mail order sales. The balance of 60% was a combination of sales at Hobby store and railway museum gift shops, together with foreign sales. At that time, a typical print run for an Interurban Press book was 3,000 copies, but some titles were much more popular and had larger initial printings or multiple reprintings. The publisher's best-selling title up to 1983, Dinner in the Diner, had sold 30,000 copies so far. In 1992, the two monthly magazines had circulations of about 10,000 each. Private Varnish, a quarterly magazine about privately owned passenger rail cars, had about 3,000 subscribers. Publication of books continued, concurrently. The company had 10 employees at that time, divided between its main office in Glendale and a production office in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
In 1992 and 1993, Interurban Press also published the softcover North American Light Rail Annual and User's Guide, about existing and planned light rail systems in the United States, Canada and Mexico. A third edition was published in 1994 by the company's successor (albeit still edited by Mac Sebree), but that turned out to be the final edition of that annual, which had sold about 10,000 copies per year.
Mac Sebree retired in 1993 and on August 6 of that year sold Interurban Press to Pentrex, which did not continue publishing under the Interurban Press name.
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